The first collection of this dynamic writing duo's science fiction stories, In Concert also includes their short story "The Man on the Ceiling," the first short story ever to win the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Each book is signed by the Tems.
Steve Rasnic Tem was born in Lee County Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of over 350 published short stories and is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His story collections include City Fishing, The Far Side of the Lake, In Concert (with wife Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior, Celestial Inventories, and Onion Songs. An audio collection, Invisible, is also available. His novels include Excavation, The Book of Days, Daughters, The Man In The Ceiling (with Melanie Tem), and the recent Deadfall Hotel.
Let's say that I checked this book out for Hallowe'en. Let's say that the chains on the thing in the basement of my mind have not yet rusted through. Let's say that it's not always going to be dark inside. Let's say... that In Concert is a lush, creepy and melancholy best-of collection by some underappreciated fantasists, in a beautiful (if scarily expensive) limited-edition package.
All of the intense, surreal and unsettling stories here are colored from the palette of loss, all blues and purples and grays, dark imagery ranging from simple love unrequited to auto-cannibalism. The title story is actually uncharacteristically hopeful—while it too deals with approaching death, with loss of faculties, it does so in an ultimately positive way.
Let's just say that if you read this one at night, you may never want the morning to come...